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A new commentary every Wednesday - February 8, 2017
Steve Bannon, Advisor Extraordinaire to President Trump
A brief history of the person who holds a special place among all those advising our President.
The 63-ish, sturdy guy with the long, tousled bangs is often seen standing some distance from Trump's desk, but among the covey of supporters and media types watching the President draw his signature on yet another executive order, Stephen Kevin Bannon usually holds a legal pad close to his chest and wears a facial expression very similar to that displayed by the cat that sought to eat the tweety bird in all of those cartoons we once watched when we were kids.
It's notable that Bannon is the first person recognized after signings; one with whom the President passes a whispered word while giving a modest shoulder squeeze to his current main man.
Is there one iota of doubt in a reader's mind that Bannon's strategy in getting Donald Trump elected was anything less than brilliant? Why then the bruhaha over his appointment as a member of the National Security Council? Let's just say that the reaction to his appointment to the group most responsible for "keeping Americans safe" is less than welcoming.
For the past week I've been researching what is known of Steve Bannon by a number of sources, including Bloomberg Financial News, Cosmopolitan, New York Times, NPR, CBS, CNN, an ex-wife, and Steve himself.
He is no dummy—earned a masters degree in National Security from Georgetown University. Yep, Trump fans, no kidding.
"I come from a blue-collar, Irish Catholic, pro-union family of Democrats, in Norfolk, Virginia," he told Bloomberg. "I wasn't political until I got out of the service (Navy) and saw how badly Jimmy Carter (bleeped) things-up. What turned me against the whole establishment was coming back from running companies in Asia and seeing that George H.W. Bush had (bleeped)-up things as badly as Carter." (Now, that is as blue collar as I dare make it)
For a man so dedicated to we scufflers in the crowd, it came as a surprise that in the past Bannon once held a position as an investment banker in the elite Wall Street banking and investing firm of Goldman Sachs. He recently praised the camaraderie he and his broker friends enjoyed while there— betting millions of dollars of someone else's money.
That may have not worked out too well for either him or Goldman Sachs. Bannon has jumped around quite a bit on a highly varied career path. He once produced a documentary movie... about failed Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. It did not play well in any venue.
He may have gotten connected with Breitbart News, a white, nationalist blog as a contributor, then more or less edited the website after the death of its founder, conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, who died in 2012.
It is not clear how Donald Trump became Bannon's fan, or visa versa, but so far, they've been a winning team.
Bannon's personal life has been mired in controversy. He was charged with battery by an ex-wife, who claimed during divorce proceedings that "he blocked his daughters from attending a school because it admitted Jews."
In fairness, I wish to repeat one prediction Bannon made recently to "The Guardian," a respected British news magazine, that is worthy of consideration.
"In five to ten years," said Bannon, "China and the U.S. will be at war over developments in the South China Sea." (End Quote, Full Stop).
-Phil Richardson, Observer of the human condition and storyteller. "He goes doddering on into his old age, making a public nuisance of himself." - Joseph L. Mencken
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